Spring thoughts

March comes in like a lion and goes out like lamb, so the saying goes. It kind of did roar in. We've been having unseasonably wintry weather at a time when we should be seeing signs of spring, as February ended and March began. Days on end of northeastern winds from that darn Fraser Valley, and repeated snowfalls. Significant snowfalls, too, not just the "dusting" we might typically get in late winter.

Significant February snowfall

Today, there is still snow on parts of the yard. It's melting slowly because temperatures have stayed quite cold, freezing overnight.

But we've had a few sunny days now, and surely spring is on the way. I looked back a few years in my Facebook feed and saw that my forsythia has bloomed in mid- to late March before. Here's a picture I took on March 14, 2015:



I purposely planted that forsythia where I could see it from my living room window. It's one of the earliest plants to bloom in spring, and I am color-starved by the time winter ends and want to feast my eyes on the yellow flowers. The 14th may be particularly early; elsewhere, I have a photo from March 25, 2017, where it's just starting to bloom.

Bellingham, where I work, is oceanside and has a milder micro-climate than Lynden, where I live, which is about 15 miles inland. Every spring, as I drive to work, I see forsythia blooming in Bellingham and then along the road to Bellingham before my own finally blooms.

This year, I am resolved to return to container gardening on my deck. For the past few years, with my parents' decline and deaths and my post-water-damage remodel, I haven't had the energy. Last year, I bought some plants, planted a few, then left the rest in their little store pots, where they still are now. This year, I want to make the effort to once again make my deck a beautiful, fragrant place to spend time.